Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-09-20
COLORADO SNOW BANKS.
TRACES OF GLACIAL ACTION FOUND
ALONG THE WATERWAYS.

Snow Slides and Their Destructiveness.
Length of Time the Snow on the
Mountains is Supposed to Last-Frost
Never Out of the Ground.
"How often is the snow renewed on the tops
Of the mountains i'll Colorado!' asked re-
porter of a pioneer Coloradoan, MIR, William
N Byers, who has observed the face of nature
in the Rockies for many years
"Well, said he that Is a gigantic question
which HAYDEN asked himself years ago, but |
utterly failed to answer Some persons think
the snow is renewed on the mountains here |
every two years, but doubt it greatly, and |
after all it is matter of the merest con |
lecture We can only use our powers of OBJ |
servation and draw our infcrences from the |
most practical reasons at hand You have |
heard, of course, That the mann difference ex- |
isting between our mountains and those Of
the old world lies iii the fact that there
glaciers abound, whereas we are free from
those terrible anathemas of ice and snow.
"But there are plentiful traces of glacial
action at the head of the Arkansas river, and
about Lake creek, in the neighborhood of
Twin lakes, and on both sides of the Arkansas
valley These traces are a remarkable
feature Of the rocks. They are called
moraines The rocks are scored III places
along the foot OF the mountains, and the
pushing out of moralnes into the Arkansas is
observed
"Another remarkable instance is seen in the
region of Grand lake, in Middle park, in the
scoring of the rocks in the terminal and
10 all lol.
the result of glacial action In every ravine
III the glacial period there were rivers of ice.
As the Iavines unite the ice rivers accumulate
in the passage down the ravines, and are mul
tiplied in junction with other ravines until
they become plows of ice. These plows push
both to the right and to the left, but the
greater portion Is pushed on in front, and Is
called terminal moraine. The masses pushed
out at the sides are known as lateral
moraines.
NATURES OWN SNOW PLOw.
This is like plow with a double share
turning a furrow both right and left The
effect on the nbrokeu roc4 is To scour and
polish it, and to score 1t INTO grooves, sweep
ing everything movable before it, depositing
all this moving matter at its sides ami
directly in front. When the glacial pcliAl
ended and the temperature of tins part of the
earth changed il left these rivers of ice pro
jectmg down into the plains at the mouth Of
the gorge penetrating the surface of the
earth to more or hess depth, and running
through until they gradually melted away.
| Thus were formed most of our mountain
lakes, such as Twin, Grand and Black.
| once counted from the summit of Longs
| Y.,at laI- # ubI1h ora
| covered with ice all the year through.
The snow probably remains for genera
tions or centuries in many of the snow fields
which yet exist in the Rocky mountains,
| think ii is possible that the SNOW melts under
| meath and is replaced II is safe To say there
are no living glaciers now in this portion of
the Rocky mountains. There is, however, Il
slow, hardly perceptible motion of the snow
fields down hill,
Frost has been found in many of the
mines in the high mountains above timber
line at great depth In the North Star mine
near Hoosier pass, frost was found at deptl
of l4S feet The great extent Of plateau
country causes the high temperature of thu
mountain ranges, and is the cause of tht
snow melting on, in direct contrast To tn,
mountains of Switzerland or those of the seq
coast The mountains Of the sea coast have
a low SNOW line, and IT Is this which cause
glaciers Along the Alaskan coast tn,
glaciers are pushing out into the sea.
As for the mountains here, they are mucl
like those Of the Himalaya range i'll Asia
having the same high snow line. This
another argument in favor of Colorado. Th
high snow line insures a dry, bracmg, TOM
climate
"The snow fields worthy of mention whicl
last all the year around are situated betwcel
Longs peak and Middle park. These re
main during the summer | have often oh
served the glacial action on the fence il
Middle park 1t moves them every winter
This motion is not great In fact, it is s
slow as to be almost imperceptible Snow
! slides are very common in Coloredo, an
most common in the San juan near tn
main range They occur every yenr, an
frequently when snow falls to any extent
. Loss OF HUMAN LIFE.
MANY lives are lost in snow slides becaus
people who become Indifferent TO DANCE
through long association with it will insi'
on building houses in the wrong location
When snow begins in the mountains il ofte
falls twenty, thirty or forty feet, and S
covers up the old snow The ground is frozel
The frost never comes ont of the groun'
When we dig there we always find the cart
| frozen. 1t may be that the snow gradual
melts away, but as / said before, nobod
knows anything about it positively, 1t is
mere matter of conjecture. There are plac
in the mountains where | don't think Il
snow ever melts. don't believe there is an
spot where timber grows that snow dOesI
melt. If the snow had not melted the til
her never could have grown. Above timb
growth perpetual shane cannot exist exec
under ledge Of rock. The sun gets arouI
everywhere in the summer time,
at is estimated" said State Engineer NJ
tleton to the reporter later, "that sixty inch
of water fail annually on the eastern slope
the Rocky mountains in the form of sno
and rain; ~ per cent of this falls during .
winter and spring months That which ia
late in the autumn and early in the winter
Y, most available for irrigation, as it becom
solid, almost like ice, and melts slowly und
the summers sun, affOrding a steady fiC
: through the irrlgating season. Shows fa
ing in late spring melt rapidly, and the "
ters run down the rivers unused. Althou
, about fifty mountain peaks in Colorado rea
! an elevation of over H. 600 feet, yet the snC
in nearly all disappears every season, Sn
n quantities remaining only in patches here q
re there. On this account there are at prese
ne no glaciers in the Rocky mountains. I
les cold mountains condense the moisture in
country adjacent thereby robbing the pla
of their quota of moisture.
Hence the necessity for irrigation. II
. quite easy to foretell the probable amount
VI water for irrigation purposes for the comi
L season by watching the amount of snowt
in the mountains.
Farmers living from twenty to thin
miles from the mountains, or where they c
watch the snowfall on the main range of
q. mountains, have ltNrned how TO gauge th
crops by the time the snow falls and the quI
tity. Ii the snow falls early they exp
water for late crops. If the snow fall pr
~ cipally in the spring months they fear sh
y water in summer and fall, and plant s
accordingly.
his There can be no doubt about the influer
that cutting or burning the timber on
mountains has on the flow of our streai
They will on this account become more int
rittent i'll their flow, which Is drawback
the irrigation interests of the state The pI
. ervation of the mountain forests should
encouraged" concluded Mr.. Nettleton {
Observation-Disclosures Tribune Republican
Dish for a King.
The Jambalaya is a delicious Creole dl:
and is thus prepared: Take a good ten
chicken and cut it up into neat joints,
them into egg and cracker crumbs, sea
= them with salt and pepper and fry in de